Bruce Springsteen: From singer to icon

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The music rolls out across the huge arena like a thunderstorm sweeping through the heartland. Bruce Springsteen, his face bathed in passion and sweat, surveys the enraptured multitude beyond the footlights.

Then in a voice that rumbles like the chrome pipes of a Harley, the troubadour from the New Jersey shore steps to the microphone and belts out a favorite verse:

"Now I believe in the love that you gave me, I believe in the faith that can save me, I believe in the hope and I pray that someday it may raise me above these badlands - you gotta` live it every day, let the broken hearts stand as the price you gotta` pay ... ."

His followers, 20,000 strong, are standing, arms raised, swaying, dancing, immersing themselves in the pounding rhythm. These CD-thumpers know every word, of course, and they sing the lyrics back loud and strong, sing from the heart, sing for the pure, soul-cleansing pleasure of it.

This is not church; Springsteen is not a man of the cloth (unless by cloth you mean denim and black leather). But what is happening here is undeniably spiritual.

For 26 years, Bruce Springsteen has delivered his own rock `n` roll gospel. It is populated with working-class characters conflicted by notions of despair and hope, of failure and redemption.

They are souls driven by the promise that honest dreams pursued with hard work and sacrifice can overcome the shackles of poverty, bigotry, racism and hate.

A "congregation" flung from North America to Europe and beyond has taken Springsteen`s romantic, defining - and definitely American - message to heart.

Hard-core Springsteen fans and wizened chroniclers of popular culture alike have long considered him a kind of secular prophet, a man whose lyrics and music and soul-stirring performances have made a profound difference in their lives.

Some of his song titles read like a rock `n` roll hymnal: "The Promised Land," "Adam Raised a Cain," "Souls of the Departed," "It`s Hard to be a Saint in the City," "Soul Driver," "Reason to Believe."

From Barcelona to Boston, from London to Los Angeles, Springsteen and his ever-loyal E Street Band (including wife Patti Scialfa) carry the message that freedom, peace and love can be found in communal spirit and quiet acts of individual sacrifice.

This latest tour of Brother Springsteen`s traveling salvation show is making its second pass through the Southwest with planned stops in Anaheim and Las Vegas. As with the other 127 shows during the past year, most of these sold out in a matter of minutes.

"What Bruce Springsteen offers to the people who share this experience is an authentic language of the heart," said Eric Alterman.

A syndicated political columnist and senior fellow at the World Policy Institute (a New York think tank) by day, Alterman, 40, is also author of "Ain`t No Sin to be Glad You`re Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen" (Little, Brown).

"Aside from Springsteen, I don`t feel we have a language of the heart in secular America and I don`t think many religions have it, either."

Many figures of popular culture have legions of devout fans, of course.

The worldwide outpouring following the death of Princess Diana was astonishing; the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead and scores of other rock bands have inspired millions over the decades; cult-like followings have grown up surrounding the memory of Marilyn Monroe and even James Dean.

And then there was Elvis.

So what sets the Springsteen phenomena apart?

The short answer, Alterman said, is that it is "not entirely different. There is an element among some Springsteen fans that is not significantly different from, say, even Wayne Newton or Barbra Streisand fans.

"But Springsteen is not about the man, it`s not about celebrity or even entertainment. It`s about the shared experience, and he says the same thing himself.

"This is borne out in the philosophical content of the lyrics. It`s not `come with me and I`ll save you.` Rather, it`s `look within yourself to find what you need.`"

Most fans enter the world of Springsteen with the same devotion and serious mindedness as religious individuals entering church, Alterman said.

"But this is a church where they sell beer, and that is a good thing."`PROVE IT ALL NIGHT`

If his prodigious catalog of songs can be considered the canon, Springsteen`s sweat-soaked three-hour stage performance is the celebration, equal parts epiphany and benediction, an affirmation of life for the faithful.

Nancy and Rudy Novotny of Carmel Valley (Calif.) reminisced in the parking lot before a recent concert at The Pond about the hundreds of Springsteen shows they`ve seen dating to the singer`s salad days in the early `70s in Asbury Park, N.J.

"To give you an idea of how important these performances are to us, when I was pregnant with our daughter - she`s 14 now - we came up here to L.A. for five nights out of seven on the `Born in the USA` tour. I mean my belly was out to here, but I wouldn`t think of missing it," Nancy said.

"But it`s not all super heavy and serious," Rudy added. "This is fun. He enjoys the hell out of what he`s doing up there and we`re having a great time, too."

In that voice durable as a redwood, Springsteen interrupted the blazing rocker "Light of Day" in his show and leaned into the spotlight to evangelize about his purpose.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we`re here tonight on a search and rescue mission," Springsteen bellowed in his best imitation of a fundamentalist preacher.

"It ain`t too late to save yourself. If your soul`s got bad credit, if your heart is running on empty, your spirit is bankrupt ... we`re here tonight to re-educate, resuscitate, regenerate, re-illustrate, repatriate, re-liberate, re-sexualate ... with the power and the glory and the majesty and the mystery - with the MINISTRY OF ROCK `N ROLL!

"That`s right! That`s my job and I`m gonna` do it! And unlike my competitors, I shall not, I will not, I cannot promise you life everlasting. But I can promise you life RIGHT NOW!"

Some measure of this is self-parody, but we`re not really sure how much.

For David Brauner, 41, another San Diego fan at that recent show, Springsteen`s music has been a gospel to live by since he "got converted" during the "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour in the late `70s.

"I was going through my angry-young-man years and there was such an honesty that came through on that record that I really identified with," said Brauner, who publishes a real-estate trade magazine. "I guess I could have found inspiration in a Mother Teresa, but I didn`t."

Like Springsteen, Brauner grew up in New Jersey and attended Catholic schools before becoming disaffected as a teen-ager by the trappings of the church.

Though he maintains a deep faith in God, Brauner said, his passion for Springsteen`s music "has been a life-changing experience."

"For me, it`s beyond his level of expertise as a songwriter and performer," said Brauner. "I think there is an underlying integrity and commitment to what he is doing.

"I know there are plenty of fans out there who are faithful to plenty of performers. I appreciate that Celine Dion can hit those beautiful high notes, but it doesn`t do a thing for me.

"No one in pop music deals with the kind of issues Springsteen does, no one writes with such maturity as they hit 30, 40, 50. Maybe there are a lot of cultural prophets to some degree, but I can`t imagine anyone else on this scale.

"It`s a little scary, though, talking about a cultural figure as a secular prophet because I am so religious myself. But I believe there is nothing God wants more than for people to live their lives in an honest, dedicated way."`I`LL WAIT FOR YOU`

Springsteen himself said in a recent magazine interview that outside of his family (he and his wife have three children), "the relationship I`ve built up with my audience over the past 25 years is the most important relationship in my life.

"The key is that you have to be able to walk out on stage and see yourself in the faces of the crowd and they gotta` be able to see some part of them in you."

Springsteen refers to himself as a storyteller and mythmaker who writes songs in order "to find a fundamental purpose for my own existence."

"Basically, I think people go to art and music as a way to order their lives in a world that feels so out of order," he said.

"I think people spend so much time feeling apart from each other and feeling different and feeling isolated from their communities or society. Rock `n` roll holds up a promise of a certain kind of community; it`s an ideal (that) may never be realized except for those few hours in a show. But it`s an important ideal.

"You write your music and you never know where the seeds you sow are going to fall."

Springsteen fandom is "like a religion, but it is not a religion," said Daniel Cavicchi, author of "Tramps Like Us: Music and Meaning Among Springsteen Fans" (Oxford University Press).

Long among the converted, Cavicchi spent three years crisscrossing the country interviewing fans about their devotion to Springsteen for his doctoral thesis, then turned it into a book.

Cavicchi, who now teaches history, philosophy and science at the Rhode Island School of Design, said fans tell conversion stories that "have the same structure and pattern as stories people tell about turning to Jesus."

"There`s a hierarchy about who`s a true believer. Devotion to Bruce is measured much like different sects argue about how to measure faith. And some fans are truly obsessed. But I stop short of calling it a religion."

In "The Promised Land," a song about making a stand in life, Springsteen sings:

"There`s a dark cloud rising from the desert floor, I packed my bags and I`m heading straight into the storm; Gonna be a twister to blow everything down that ain`t got the faith to stand its ground; blow away the dreams that tear you apart, blow away the dreams that break your heart, blow away the lies that leave you nothin` but lost and brokenhearted."

When San Diego fan Brauner first heard those lines in college in the late `70s, he latched onto them as a precise expression of defiance.

"Then, I was looking at it from what I see now was immaturity. Now that song means something entirely different to me," Brauner said.

When author Alterman hears one of Springsteen`s anthems, like "Born to Run," 20 years later, he doesn`t consider it "an oldie."

"I wonder if the song is still moving me because of some sense of nostalgia for who I was then, or if it`s moving me now because of who I am today," he said. "It`s very complicated."

But in the end, Brauner said, a big part of being a Springsteen fan is to throttle back on the deep introspection and simply revel in the excitement.

"I just love going to the concerts," he said. "For me, it`s a life event, a joyous experience, like going to the wedding of a best friend."

(c) Visit Copley News Service

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Author: Mark Sauer